A Week to Remember

If you kept an eye on the Volcom Pipe Pro last weekend, you might have an idea of how perfect Pipe has been recently. Even outside of the event, local and visiting surfers have been packing pits and pocketing some of the best waves we’ve seen all winter–all of which has been keeping senior SURFER staff photographer Ryan “Chachi” Craig a very busy man.

“The struggle is finding time to sit down and do a proper edit, especially when the surf is as good as it’s been for the last seven days,” says Craig. “There really aren’t windows to sit down, collect your bearings, and bust out well color-corrected images, plus my computer is on the verge of death.”

The wind switched from southwest to directly south during the week, giving pure groomed conditions to much of the Haleiwa coastline. When the wind is that good, regardless of light or rain, a photographer shoots first and edits later. It wasn’t until yesterday that the swell and wind got funky, when “Chachi” was able to deliver the goods. And boy did they deliver. Take a peek at the gallery above and see how the usual suspects–John John Florence, Makua Rothman, Bruce Irons and a slew of traveling pros–made good use of a stellar run of waves on the North Shore.